The launching on 1 September 2005 of the ISO 22000 series, developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 34, Food products, signalled the arrival of a truly global option for ensuring safe food supply chains.

A new edition of ISO 9001, the world’s most widely used quality management system standard, is being submitted for voting as a Final Draft International Standard and, subject to formal approval by the ISO membership, the publication of the revised version should be in the October-November 2008 time frame.

The proposed ISO 9001:2008 does not introduce additional requirements compared to the last edition in 2000 and does not change the intent of ISO 9001:2000.

Some Numbers

It is estimated that over one million ISO 9001 certificates have been issued to organizations in private and public sectors, in manufacturing and services, and in 170 countries.

History

ISO 9001:2008 will be the fourth edition of the standard which was first published in 1987. The third edition, published in 2000, represented a thorough revision, including new requirements and a sharpened customer focus, reflecting developments in quality management and experience gained since the publication of the initial version.

ISO 9001 is one of 17 standards (plus a corrigendum) developed by ISO/TC 176 on quality management supporting tools. These include ISO 9004:2000, Quality management systems – Guidelines for performance improvements, which is undergoing revision and expected to be published as a new edition in 2009.